Sitting tied up on what had to be one of the old Pegasus dorm rooms, Starlight was struggling against her rope bonds trying several times to cast magic, only to have it fizz out limply. Alexander sighed deeply beside her, occasionally glancing over at the mare whom he practically got into this mess.

"When we get out of this, I'm going to show that entitled little pony the meaning of 'magically induced explosion', no pony puts a magical inhibitor on me and gets away with it!" Starlight struggles more but to no avail.

"An interesting notion, as magical inhibitors are used as a form of foreplay in your world for Unicorns. Twilight can be very educational." Alexander smirks as he glances back at Starlight.

"W-why did you even ask about it?! I mean, I appreciate the gesture, but..." Starlight blushes slightly before sighing as she stops struggling.

Looking around the dorm room, they can see it is designed much like their own, only this room had a three seater sofa with a curved corner seat then two more seats.

"These people had a much fancier sofa than us... We could likely get one if we did away with the armchair." Alexander comments to Starlight who rolls her eyes.

"We're being held hostage so our friends will come save us and you're making jokes? Sounds about right... That call I helped you do earlier was weird." Starlight states leaning back in her seat.

"That's the point, it's intended to be weird and not taken seriously should anyone overhear it. The four of us came up with it just in case." Alexander replies chuckling slightly.

Starlight nods in agreement before trying to struggle against her bonds again before the door opens and Diamond walks in.

"Nice to see that you're both still here. I'm honestly surprised your friend hasn't come looking for you yet." Smirking, Diamond strolls over and stands in front of the pair, "Emerald managed to put a magical inhibitor on your horn, I heard you put up quite the fight."

"I got a few lucky hits in..." Starlight smiles smugly at Diamond who chuckles.

Diamond looks at a watch on his right wrist before sighing lightly.

"Well, as fun as tossing quips back and forth with you is... I have to go welcome two members of my crew back into this world, ta ta." Diamond bows before leaving the room and locking the door.

Waiting until Diamond is a decent distance away, Alexander sighs before looking at Starlight.

"I have a plan... Not sure if you'll like it given our current situation, but provided it works we can escape." Alexander explains making Starlight raise an eyebrow.

"Right... What's the catch?" Starlight asks, shifting to face Alexander.

Blushing slightly the magician fidgets a little, "Well..."

Walking through the forest near the Kilgharrah docks, Twilight is struggling with some vines while Edward checks his phone.

"A little help would be nice!" Twilight grunts and eventually gets out of the vines.

"I'm checking Alexander's location... He normally keeps it off but for these situations, he turns on his Snapchat location." Edward looks up and hums as he walks in Alexander's direction.

"Sanpchat? Are you kidding me?!" Twilight sighs as she follows Edward, looking around at the overgrown portion of the forest.

The pair continues searching through the dense overgrowth before stumbling upon the Pegasus House dorm making Twilight's eyes go wide as she hurries to inspect it.

"What's up? Do you recognise it?" Edward asks catching up with Twilight who shakes her head.

"Not exactly no, but in my research, I came across references to two lost houses which used to inhabit Kilgharrah. One was the noble house of Pegasus, the majestic wind familiar, the other was the icy cold Wendigo familiar. Both of them had their own house, resulting in six houses of opposing elements... What happened to them?" Twilight ponders out loud while running her hand over the Pegasus insignia on the gate pillar.

Moving past the gate, Twilight walks up to the door which she notes has disturbed vines. That along with Edward's 'location method' would suggest Alexander and Starlight did enter here. Opening the door, the pair press further coming to the lobby of the Pegasus dorm building.

"There are so many ways they could have gone... It'll take all afternoon to search this place." Edward states looking around before noticing Twilight is entering the door under the staircase, "Wait for me!"

Not paying much attention to Edward, Twilight followed her senses to the basement before looking around briefly to head down the tunnel to the left, coming to the mirror room.

"That's where that slight vibration is coming from, I've never seen such a fascinating wall mirror before..." Twilight mumbles to herself as she slowly moves closer.

Edward manages to catch up quickly and stops to take a breath in the same room, "Can we slow down a little..?"

"Sorry, I felt this slight magical vibration and wanted to follow it to the source," Twilight states looking at the mirror closely, running her fingers just every so slightly off the surface, not actually touching the mirror itself.

Walking over, Edward gently touches Twilight's arm to try and pull her away from the mirror.

"That doesn't look safe and is in an extension of the mansion's basement, I wouldn't trust it," Edward states making Twilight nod slightly.

"Unfortunately kids, you're going to have to touch it." A mysterious voice states from behind before they are both pushed into the mirror.

The resulting touch engulfs them both in darkness, the pair being thrown across the room onto the floor once it's done its job. Twilight groans and is barely conscious when she watches two entities walk out of the mirror and take on the form of her and Edward. Diamond steps into view, straightening his blazer as he looks them over.

"Seems like the absorption process was a success, how do you both feel?" Diamond turns to Edwards counterpart with yellow hair, goldish highlights and gold eyes, "Topaz?"

The man referred to as Topaz clenched and released his hand a few times before stretching lightly, "I still wonder why we need to absorb energy in order to form, but... It's tolerable either way."

Rolling his eyes, Diamond looks towards the counterpart of Twilight who has deep purple hair, lighter highlights and purple eyes. "Amythest?"

The mare looks at her equine body before stretching and yawning, "I feel wonderful, she had a lot of energy to spare~"

Diamond smiles wickedly before turning to the downed magician and semi-conscious Alicorn, "Keep an eye on those two, I need to wrap up some business upstairs."

The gem pair shares the same wicked smile before nodding, Diamond taking that as his cue to leave the room.

"We're finally back, Amythest," Topaz states taking a deep breath.

"This should be so much fun~" Amythest squats next to Twilight, smiling widely.

Author's Notes:

We apologise for this chapter being a week late but with any luck, we can catch up pretty quickly, just things have been bust the past two weeks and we have had little opportunity to work on the fic. We hope you enjoy this portion of the arc which is heating up~